NOVA Microhypervisor

The NOVA OS Virtualization Architecture is a
research project aimed at constructing a secure virtualization environment
with a small trusted computing base. NOVA consists of a microhypervisor
and an unprivileged multi-server user environment running on top of it.

Like third-generation microkernels, the NOVA microhypervisor uses a
capability-based authorization model and provides only basic
mechanisms for virtualization, spatial and temporal separation,
scheduling, communication, and management of platform resources.
The disaggregated multi-server environment implements additional
operating-system services in user mode, such as device drivers,
protocol stacks, and policies.
On machines with hardware virtualization features, NOVA can run
multiple unmodified guest operating systems concurrently. Each VM
has its own associated virtual-machine monitor (VMM) that runs as an
unprivileged user application on top of the microhypervisor.

Supported Platforms

NOVA runs on multi-core 32-bit and 64-bit x86 machines that support ACPI.

It also runs under QEMU (including VM
support), and as a microkernel in a virtual machine on top of
itself.

A platform with
Intel VT-x or
AMD-V
is required for running guest operating systems in VMs.